Heinrich Thyssen

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Heinrich Thyssen , since 1907 Heinrich Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon (born October 31, 1875 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ; † June 26, 1947 in Lugano ) was a Hungarian entrepreneur and art collector of German origin and the youngest son of August Thyssen from the Thyssen family .

Life

Since his parents divorced in 1885, Heinrich Thyssen acquired a large stake in the Thyssen Group led by his father at an early age . He studied chemistry, physics and mineralogy and received his doctorate in 1900 from the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg .

In 1906 he married Margit Freiin Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (1887–1971), became a Hungarian citizen, was adopted by his father-in-law and then took the name of Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon. He retained his Hungarian citizenship until his death, but in the 1920s and 1930s he operated at times German national .

In 1912 he joined the board of directors of the coal mining company, the German Emperors' union .

After the end of the First World War , Thyssen moved to The Hague and controlled Thyssen’s foreign companies from there. When the United Steelworks was founded in 1926, he moved into its supervisory board , but brought his part of the family inheritance to the August Thyssen Enterprises des In- und Abroad GmbH and not to the United Steelworks. He built his own group of companies around the pipe works in Düsseldorf-Reisholz and the now defunct steelworks in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk , which had been part of the group since 1906.

Thyssen was a major shareholder in Bremer Vulkan and owned 80 percent of Vulkan shares in the early 1930s.

In 1932 Thyssen moved to Switzerland and made a name for himself as an art collector in Lugano. In 1939 he appointed General Director Wilhelm Roelen as his general representative of the Thyssen Group in Germany.

His marriage ended in divorce in 1933. You have a total of four children: Stephan (1907–1981), Margareta (1911–1989), Gabrielle (* 1916) and Hans Heinrich (1921–2002).

Art collection

Heinrich Thyssen had been building up an art collection since 1911 at the latest , which was kept in Rechnitz Castle , his wife's family castle , and which was shown to the public for the first time in 1930 in the Neue Pinakothek . In the 1930s, the collection was moved to the Villa Favorita acquired by Thyssen in Castagnola near Lugano, where it was open to the public from 1936–1939 (and again from 1949). At Thyssen's death in 1947 the collection consisted of 525 works of art and was then divided among his four children. From them, Hans Heinrich arranged for the collection to continue to exist in the Villa Favorita, the expansion of the collection and the subsequent establishment of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

The August Thyssen art collection comprised outstanding works of old masters with a focus on old German and old Dutch painting. Important works in the collection (which are now part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum) come from, among others, Jan van Eyck , Rogier van der Weyden , Hans Memling , Vittore Carpaccio , Sebastiano del Piombo , Albrecht Dürer , Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ä. , Hans Baldung , Hans Holbein the Elder J. , Tizian , Caravaggio , Rubens , van Dyck , Frans Hals , Jan Steen and Jacob van Ruisdael .

literature

Movie

  • German Dynasties - The Thyssens. Documentary, Germany, 2010, 44 min., Script and direction: Julia Melchior and Sebastian Dehnhardt , production: WDR , series: Deutsche Dynastien, first broadcast: ARD , November 8, 2010, summary ( memento of August 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) the ARD.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Thyssen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Kuckuk (ed.): Bremen large shipyards in the Third Reich . (Contributions to the social history of Bremen 15), Edition Temmen, 1993, ISBN 3-86108-203-9 , p. 130.
  2. ↑ a b Tomas Llorens, Mar Borobia and Paloma Alarco: Masterworks - Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza , Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid 2000, ISBN 84-88474-59-8 .
personal data
SURNAME Thyssen, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon, Heinrich Freiherr von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur, patron of the arts, son of August Thyssen
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1947
Place of death Lugano